Molyneux: Godus will be invest-to-play

Godus, Peter Molyneux's Kickstarted world-builder, will not be "free-to-play." It will be free and you will be able to play it, but "free-to-play" doesn't apply to the monetization process Molyneux envisions for Godus, he tells Pocket Gamer.

"There cannot be a term that is less true," he says. "What we need is a new term. And that term is more like 'invest-to- play.' What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game." He doesn't break down exactly how Godus' monetization will play out, but he provides one detail: Monetization will enter the game at different points for every player, only when each one is "in the right mindset."

Molyneux wants "to tempt people to think about being proud about investing," he says. "Before we even talk about monetization, we want players to feel like Godus is a hobby, not just a game."

Molyneux is turned off by the monetization process in EA's Dungeon Keeper, a new, mobile version of the game he originally created – but he's aware that trying to change the free-to-play formula may not be profitable. "Yeah, I'm worried about that, but those risks are worth taking," he says. "We could layer in 'it takes six days to build this house', and maybe we'd make a shitload of money, but that's not my ambition for games."